"He grew up today," Lewis said. "I told him, 'You're the general, lead us to victory. You lead us today, I'm just here to facilitate things. Just lead us.'

"To look in his eyes, he had something different about him today, and I just wanted to encourage him. I've always been a Joe Flacco fan and always will be."

The Flacco bandwagon is far more crowded after Saturday, when his big arm helped lift the Ravens to a 38-35 double-overtime victory over the Denver Broncos. Flacco kept attacking the Broncos deep, and the payoff was his finest playoff performance (18-for-34, 331 yards, three TDs, no interceptions).

Flacco and Lewis are at different stages of their careers. Lewis will retire whenever the Ravens' playoff run ends, but Flacco is morphing into his prime, looking for a new contract and his first Super Bowl. Who knows? Maybe Flacco will get both. Once again, the Ravens are one victory from a Super Bowl, and Flacco is playing boldly, like a quarterback ready to seize the moment.

"Perspectives on any player are going to evolve and that's part of the process for any young quarterback," said Ravens coach John Harbaugh. "I'm proud of him."

Flacco was his usual even-keeled self after the game, but he admitted his 70-yard touchdown pass Jacoby Jones that tied the game late in regulation was special.

"It was crazy," Flacco said. "We called 'four verts,' and I started to step up in the pocket and I kept my eye on the safeties depth. I felt I had maybe a shot of getting it over them. You don't have any timeouts ... you have to go a pretty decent length. You have to start taking shots at some point, and it happened to work out."

Flacco has taken shots from critics who question whether Flacco has what it takes to lead the Ravens to a championship. The Ravens say they don't doubt Flacco, and that showed in this game.

"Joe proves he's a winner," said Torrey Smith, who caught two touchdown passes. "Everyone wants him to throw a million times a game, and have the yards like some of these other quarterbacks. But we're not built like that. We just need him to win, we need him to make plays, and he does that for us. A lot of people like to use that 'elite' word, throw that around. But he's not asked to do the things those other quarterbacks are doing. If we played that type of style, I believe he could do it. In games like this, when he leads us to victory, I believe he deserves more respect."

Flacco earned more respect Saturday.

Though both men are at different points in their journeys, Lewis could be leaving the game on top, perhaps with Flacco leading the Ravens to the summit.

"We fought hard to get back to this point," Flacco said. "We feel like it is going to take a lot for someone to come and kick us off that field come the AFC Championship game."